[1][2] Du Mez grew up in Iowa, and lived in Tallahassee, Florida, during high school.
[1][3] Du Mez's second book, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, published in 2020, argued that American evangelicals have worked for decades to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism.
[4] It received widespread coverage, including in secular media such as The Washington Post[5] and The Boston Globe,[6] as well as Christian outlets such as The Gospel Coalition.
[7] In July 2021, it reached number four on The New York Times Best Seller list of nonfiction paperbacks.
[8] On September 12, 2024, Du Mez announced the upcoming release of the film For Our Daughters, directed by Carl Byker, that draws from the last chapter of Jesus and John Wayne, documenting stories of abuse within evangelicalism.